ISO 17025 quality system in a university environment

The experience of working under an ISO 17025 compliant quality system in a university environment is described in the example of the Testing Centre of University of Tartu. University-specific features of the quality system include that the Testing Centre acts as the “quality system server” for other units of the university and graduate students participate in the work carried out under the quality system. The benefits for the university and the graduate students are discussed. It is concluded that implementation of an ISO 17025 compatible quality system in a university is fully accomplishable and gives significant added value to the university by helping to destroy the ivory tower perception about universities and by introducing real-world flavour into the studies and broaden the minds (quality awareness) of the students.     

The effects of income taxation on investor's risk-taking: A stock company case

The effects of income taxation on the investor's willingness to take risks are considered. The investor is assumed to be a risk averting one. The income taxation is assumed proportional so that considerations are restricted to investments of stock companies only, and some aspects of the indebtedness of a firm are also considered. In the empirical part of the study, the efficiency of the parameters joining to taxation as the regulators of risk-taking and indebtedness is presented.     

The swelling and dissolution of cellulose crystallites in subcritical and supercritical water

The swelling and dissolution phenomena of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) were investigated in subcritical and supercritical water. Commercial MCC was treated in water at temperatures of 250–380 °C and a pressure of 250 bar for 0.25–0.75 s. As reaction products, undissolved but depolymerised cellulose residue, short-chain cellulose precipitate, water-soluble cello-oligosaccharides and monosaccharides, as well as their degradation products, were detected. The highest yield of the cellulose II precipitate was obtained after a reaction time of 0.25 s at 360 °C. Our hypothesis was that if the crystallites were swollen, the depolymerization pattern would be that of homogeneous reaction and the cellulose Iβ to cellulose II transformation would be observed. The changes in the structure of the undissolved cellulose residue were characterised by size exclusion chromatography, wide-angle X-ray scattering and ¹³C solid-state NMR techniques. In many cases, the cellulose residue samples contained cellulose II; however, due to experimental limitations, it remains unclear whether it was formed through the swelling of crystallites or the partial readsorption of the dissolved cellulose fraction. The molar mass distributions of untreated MCC and after low intensity treatments showed a bimodal shape. After high intensity treatments the high molar mass chains disappeared which indicated a complete swelling or dissolution of the crystallites.     

Small-angle scattering study of structural changes in the microfibril network of nanocellulose during enzymatic hydrolysis

The hydrolysis of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), consisting of individual cellulose fibrils, was followed using small-angle scattering techniques in order to reveal changes in the substrate structure caused by cellulose degrading enzymes. In particular, the nanoscale structure of the network of cellulose fibrils was characterized with the combination of small-angle neutron scattering and small-angle x-ray scattering. In the nanocellulose with higher xylan content, the interfibrillar distance was shown to remain unchanged during enzymatic degradation, whereas the distance increased in the nanocellulose with lower xylan content. The limiting effect of xylan on the hydrolysis and a faster hydrolysis of the more thoroughly fibrillated segments of the NFC network could be observed. Despite the extensive fibrillation of the raw material, however, the hydrolysis was eventually limited by the aggregated and heterogeneous structure of the substrate.     

Effects of prolonged oral reading on F0, SPL, subglottal pressure and amplitude characteristics of glottal flow waveforms

The effects of prolonged (5x45 minute) reading (vocal loading) on fundamental frequency (F0), sound pressure level (SPL), subglottal (intraroral) pressure (p), and two glottal flow waveform parameters (AC amplitude of glottal flow, f, and negative peak amplitude of differentiated flow (d) of normal female and male subjects (N = 80) were studied. Two rest (morning and noon) and three loading (two in the morning and one in the afternoon) samples were recorded and analyzed. The glottal waveforms were obtained by inverse filtering of the acoustic pressure waveforms of speaking voice samples. The analyses were based on measurement and inverse filtering of the first stressed syllable of "paappa" words repeated 3x5 times for normal, as soft as possible, and as loud as possible phonation. In normal phonation the parameter values changed statistically significantly due to loading. In many cases the values obtained in the morning samples changed after the first loading session. This is interpreted as a vocal "warming-up effect." Especially in soft phonation p, d, and f were sensitive indicators of vocal loading. In both normal and soft phonation, the SPL, p, d, and f values tended to rise due to prolonged reading in the morning and afternoon samples, indicating increased effort (normal phonation) and a rise in the phonatory threshold (soft phonation). The lunch break vocal rest ("rest effect") considerably affected the parameter values in many cases.     

Thermal and infrared spectroscopic characterization of historical mortars

The characterization of historical mortars was performed by thermal analysis (TG-DTG), simultaneous infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The samples were taken from St. John Church (Tartu, Estonia), built in the 13th–14th centuries. The analyses are important for the restoration of the church.

In reality, mortar is a very difficult system, the lime is accompanied with different hydraulic components. TG-DTG analysis and FTIR methods can be used to identify various components of mortar and to observe the reactions associated with the controlled heating at 25–900°C in dynamic air and nitrogen atmosphere. The elemental composition of the acid-soluble components (ASC) was determined by using the ICP-AES techniques.     

Evaluating the impact of extraction and cleanup parameters on the yield of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil

Interlaboratory comparisons for the analysis of mineral oil in polluted soil using the GC–FID method indicate that extraction and cleanup conditions have significant effects on the analytical results. In this investigation a ruggedness test was performed on the extraction and cleanup method for the determination of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil. A two-level Plackett–Burman design was utilized to study the effect of 11 different method parameters on the extraction recovery of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in soil. Both qualitative and quantitative factors were investigated. The results indicate that total petroleum hydrocarbons can be relatively reliably monitored through strict implementation of the ISO and CEN draft standards. However, variation in certain method parameters readily affects the validity of the results. The most critical factors affecting TPH recovery were the solvent and co-solvent used for extraction, the extraction time, adsorbent and its weight and sample TPH concentration. Because adaptation of the draft standards especially with respect to these factors easily leads to TPH recoveries higher than 200% or lower than 70%, the validity of the adapted method should always be verified. A proper estimate of the expanded uncertainty should also be appended to TPH results, because only then can the reliability of the results be guaranteed and further justification is gained to support the end-use of the data. This also supports the credibility of the analytical services and prevents the data end-users from drawing misleading conclusions concerning the environmental risks and potential remediation requirements.     

On maximum increase and decrease of Brownian motion

The joint distribution of maximum increase and decrease for Brownian motion up to an independent exponential time is computed. This is achieved by decomposing the Brownian path at the hitting times of the infimum and the supremum before the exponential time. It is seen that an important element in our formula is the distribution of the maximum decrease for the three-dimensional Bessel process with drift started from 0 and stopped at the first hitting of a given level. From the joint distribution of the maximum increase and decrease it is possible to calculate the correlation coefficient between these at a fixed time and this is seen to be .     

Making unilamellar liposomes using focused ultrasound

Several techniques are available for making large unilamellar vesicles (LUV) with an average diameter of approximately 100 nm, widely employed as model biomembranes as well as vehicles for drug delivery. Here we describe the use of adaptive focused ultrasound (AFU) for the preparation of LUV from multilamellar vesicles (MLV) and studied the effects of ultrasound intensity and number of cycles per burst (CPB) on the average size of vesicles produced. CPB determines the duration of the intermittent pressure wavetrains emitted by the transducer, and the corresponding relaxation periods. Preliminary experiments indicated that CPB controls the size of vesicles assembling after the disruption of MLV by ultrasound and optimum values for obtaining LUV could be iterated. The sizes and lamellarity of LUV were assessed by dynamic light scattering (DLS), cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), and fluorescence quenching. AFU provides a simple and easy to use approach for making liposomes with several advantages: it is minimally invasive and involves no loss of material. Precisely controlled wavelengths are employed with a significant reduction in the presence of hot spots, which could destroy some biological materials of interest.